Director General, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)
The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) is extremely pleased once more to join the CARICOM Secretariat, FAO, CARDI and other partners in hosting the Caribbean Week of Agriculture (CWA) under the theme “Transforming our Food Systems”.
The presentation of this 16th CWA as a virtual forum provides an opportunity for building bridges between the Caribbean and the world, and for creating the partnerships that are so critical for the Region at this time in the face of unprecedented challenges and threats to our food systems, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, climate-related extreme weather events and emerging threats such as the African Swine Fever, Fusarium Wilt-TR4, and Newcastle Disease.
CWA is also being held after the historic United Nations Food Systems Summit on 23 September, which sought to advance processes that would enable the continued transformation of food systems to sustainably enhance food and nutritional security throughout the world. The
Americas spoke with one voice and through the proposal of 16 key messages, arrived at a definitive consensus with respect to the transformation and strengthening process required to
improve food systems in the hemisphere, and globally.
It is against this background that this 16th CWA provides an important virtual space where all stakeholders in the agri-food sector can share information with each other and network towards addressing the key recommendations and Game-Changing Solutions coming out of the United Nations Food Systems Summit.
In an effort to contribute to constructive dialogue, IICA will be hosting a series of technical webinars during the CWA designed to offer information and practical solutions to addressing the challenges that confront the agricultural sector. Our webinars will focus on innovations and technologies for climate resilience; the emerging threat of African Swine Fever, Capturing New Markets through Market Intelligence, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, and SME access to
Tourism markets.
CWA 2021 promises to be an exciting event which will provide participants with a unique opportunity to gather useful information and the same time contribute to the development of solutions for transforming and strengthening the resilience of the agricultural sector in the Caribbean.
I encourage all interested stakeholders to register early and participate actively in the CWA activities. I also invite you all to visit the IICA Booth in the virtual marketplace where we will be showcasing CIMAG, our new Centre for the future of agriculture, and sharing several virtual information products.
The IICA team looks forward to welcoming you at CWA 2021.